Chapter 18 The International Monetary System, 1870-1973 Prepared by Iordanis Petsas To Accompany International Economics: Theory and Policy International

Chapter 18Chapter 18The International Monetary System, 1870-1973The International Monetary System, 1870-1973

Prepared by Iordanis PetsasTo Accompany

International Economics: Theory and PolicyInternational Economics: Theory and Policy, Sixth Editionby Paul R. Krugman and Maurice Obstfeld

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Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc.

Chapter Organization

Macroeconomic Policy Goals in an Open Economy International Macroeconomic Policy Under the Gold

Standard, 1870-1914 The Interwar Years, 1918-1939 The Bretton Woods System and the International

Monetary Fund Internal and External Balance Under the Bretton

Woods System Analyzing Policy Options Under the Bretton Woods

System

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The External Balance Problem of the United States Worldwide Inflation and the Transition to Floating

Rates Summary

Chapter Organization

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Introduction

The interdependence of open national economies has made it more difficult for governments to achieve full employment and price stability.• The channels of interdependence depend on the

monetary and exchange rate arrangements. This chapter examines the evolution of the

international monetary system and how it influenced macroeconomic policy.

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Macroeconomic Policy Goals in an Open Economy

In open economies, policymakers are motivated by two goals:• Internal balance

– It requires the full employment of a country’s resources and domestic price level stability.

• External balance– It is attained when a country’s current account is neither

so deeply in deficit nor so strongly in surplus.

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Internal Balance: Full Employment and Price-Level Stability• Under-and overemployment lead to price level

movements that reduce the economy’s efficiency.• To avoid price-level instability, the government must:

– Prevent substantial movements in aggregate demand relative to its full-employment level.

– Ensure that the domestic money supply does not grow too quickly or too slowly.


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External Balance: The Optimal Level of the Current Account• External balance is more difficult to define than in

ternal balance because there are no natural benchmarks like “full employment” or “stable prices” to apply to an economy’s external transactions.

• An economy’s trade can cause macroeconomic problems depending on several factors:

– The economy’s particular circumstances– Conditions in the outside world– The institutional arrangements governing its economic

relations with foreign countries

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• Problems with Excessive Current Account Deficits:– They sometimes represent temporarily high

consumption resulting from misguided government policies.

– They can undermine foreign investors’ confidence and contribute to a lending crisis.


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• Problems with Excessive Current Account Surpluses:

– They imply lower investment in domestic plant and equipment.

– They can create potential problems for creditors to collect their money.

– They may be inconvenient for political reasons.

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– Several factors might lead policymakers to prefer that domestic saving be devoted to higher levels of domestic investment and lower levels of foreign investment:

– It may be easier to tax– It may reduce domestic unemployment.– It can have beneficial technological spillover effects


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International Economic Disintegration• Many countries suffered during the Great Depression.• Major economic harm was done by restrictions on

international trade and payments.• These beggar-thy-neighbor policies provoked foreign

retaliation and led to the disintegration of the world economy.

• All countries’ situations could have been bettered through international cooperation

– Bretton Woods agreement

The Interwar Years, 1918-1939

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Internal and External Balance Under the Bretton Woods System

The Changing Meaning of External Balance• The “Dollar shortage” period (first decade of the

Bretton Woods system)– The main external problem was to acquire enough

dollars to finance necessary purchases from the U.S.• Marshall Plan (1948)

– A program of dollar grants from the U.S. to European countries.

– It helped limit the severity of dollar shortage.

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Internal and External Balance Under the Bretton Woods System

Speculative Capital Flows and Crises• Current account deficits and surpluses took on added

significance under the new conditions of increased private capital mobility.

– Countries with a large current account deficit might be suspected of being in “fundamental disequilibrium”under the IMF Articles of Agreement.

– Countries with large current account surpluses might be viewed by the market as candidates for revaluation.

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模型目的。內生變數：決定模型兩軸。行為法則：畫出模型曲線。均衡：決定均衡之內生變數。外生衝擊

• 判斷是否為外生變數改變？• 判斷此外生變數之改變將影響哪些行為法則？• 判斷此外生變數之改變造成行為法則何種影響？

學習經濟模型五步驟模型目的。

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Analyzing Policy Options Under the Bretton Woods System

To describe the problem an individual country (other than the U.S.) faced in pursuing internal and external balance under the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates, assume that:

R = R* Monetary policy is not a policy tool under fixed

exchange rates.

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學習經濟模型五步驟內生變數

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內生變數

Fiscal ease(G or T)

Exchangerate, E

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學習經濟模型五步驟

行為法則

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Maintaining Internal Balance• If both P* and E are permanently fixed, internal

balance required only full employment.• Investment is assumed constant.• The condition of internal balance:

Yf = C(Yf – T) + I + G + CA(EP*/P, Yf – T) (18-1)– The policy tools that affect aggregate demand and therefore

affect output in the short run.– Fiscal expansion (a rise in G or a fall in T) stimulates aggregate

demand and cause output to rise.– A devaluation of the currency (a rise in E)makes domestic

goods and servies cheaper relative to those sold abroad and also increase demand and output.


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• Schedule II shows precisely how the fiscal stance must change as E changes to maintain full employment.

• II schedule is downward-sloping because currency devaluation (E) and fiscal expansion (G or T) both tend to raise output. To hold output constand, a revaluation of the currency must therefore be matched by fiscal expansion.


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Fiscal ease(G or T)

Exchangerate, E

II

Yf = C(Yf – T) + I + G + CA(EP*/P, Yf – T)

2

more expansionary

Y> Yf 1E

3

more restrictive

Y< Yf

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Maintaining External Balance• How do policy tools affect the economy’s external balance?

– Assume the government has a target value, X, for the current account surplus.

– External balance requires the government to manage fiscal policy and the exchange rate so that:

CA(EP*/P, Y – T) = X (18-2)

• Given pand P*, A rise in E makes domestic goods cheaper and improves the current account.

– Fiscal expansion(T) raises disposable income and home spending on foreign goods, therefore, worsens the current account.

– To maintain its current account at X as it devalues the currency, the government must expand its purchases or lower taxes. Therefore, the XX schedule, along which external balance holds, is positively slopes.


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Fiscal ease(G or T)

Exchangerate, E

1E1

XX

CA(EP*/P, Y – T) = X

2

EE2

CA> X

E3

4CA< X

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Figure 18-2: Internal Balance (II), External Balance (XX), and the “Four Zones of Economic Discomfort”


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均衡

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Figure 18-2: Internal Balance (II), External Balance (XX), and the “Four Zones of Economic Discomfort”


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2

Fiscal ease(G or T)返回

Exchangerate, E

XX

II

Figure 18-3: Policies to Bring About Internal and External Balance

1

3

Devaluation that results in internal and external balance

4

Fiscal expansion that results in internal and external balance


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Expenditure-Changing and Expenditure-Switching Policies• Point 1 (in Figure 18-2) shows the policy setting that

places the economy in the position that the policymaker would prefer.

• If the economy is initially away from point1, appropriate adjustments in fiscal policy and exchange rate are needed to bring about internal and external balance. 圖形

– Expenditure-changing policy– The change in fiscal policy that moves the economy to Point 1.– It alters the level of the economy’s total demand for goods and

services.


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– Expenditure-switching policy– The accompanying exchange rate adjustment– It changes the direction of demand, shifting it between

domestic output and imports.

– Both expenditure changing and expenditure switching are needed to reach internal and external balance.


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The External Balance Problem of the United States

The U.S. was responsible to hold the dollar price of gold at $35 an ounce and guarantee that foreign central banks could convert their dollar holdings into gold at that price.• Foreign central banks were willing to hold on to the

dollars they accumulated, since these paid interest and represented an international money par excellence.

The Confidence problem• The foreign holdings of dollars increased until they

exceeded U.S. gold reserves and the U.S. could not redeem them.

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Figure 18-4: U.S. Macroeconomic Data, 1964-1972


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Figure 18-4: Continued


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外生衝擊

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The acceleration of American inflation in the late 1960’s was a worldwide phenomenon.• It had also speeded up in European economies. 說明

When the reserve currency country speeds up its monetary growth, one effect is an automatic increase in monetary growth rates and inflation abroad.

U.S. macroeconomic policies in the late 1960s helped cause the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system by early 1973.

Worldwide Inflation and the Transition to Floating Rates

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Table 18-1: Inflation Rates in European Countries, 1966-1972 (percent per year)


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Effect on internal and external balance of a rise in the foreign price level, P*:• Internal balance Yf = C(Yf – T) + I + G + CA(EP*/P, Yf – T)

– P* CA Y > Yf

• External balance CA(EP*/P, Y – T) = X

– P* CA CA > X• If the economy is at point1, a rise in P*, given the exchange rate and the

domestic price level, therefore strands the economy in zone 1 with overemployment and an undesirably high surplus in its current account.

• For a given initial exchange rate, arise in P* shifts both II and XX downward by the same distance (equal to the proportional increase in P* times the initial exchange rate.)

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Figure 18-5: Effect on Internal and External Balance of a Rise in the Foreign Price Level, P*

Fiscal ease(G or T)

Exchangerate, E

XX1

II1

1

Distance = EP*/P*

II2

XX2

2


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• If nothing is done by the government, overemployment puts upward pressure on the domestic price level, and this pressure gradually shifts the two schedules back to their original positions (II1 and XX1). The schedules stop shifting once p has risen in proportion to P*(EP*/P ), so point1 is once again a position of internal and external balance.

• The way to avoid the imported inflation is to revalue the currency (i.e. lower E) and move to point2.


q

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Summary

In an open economy, policymakers try to maintain internal and external balance.

The gold standard system contains a powerful automatic mechanism for assuring external balance, the price-specie-flow mechanism.

Attempts to return to the prewar gold standard after 1918 were unsuccessful.• As the world economy moved into general depression

after 1929, the restored gold standard fell apart and international economic integration weakened.

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Summary

The architects of the IMF hoped to design a fixed exchange rate system that would encourage growth in international trade.

To reach internal and external balance at the same time, expenditure-switching as well as expenditure-changing policies were needed.

The United States faced a unique external balance problem, the confidence problem.

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U.S. macroeconomic policies in the late 1960s helped cause the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system by early 1973.

Summary

Documents

Chapter 18 The International Monetary System, 1870-1973 Prepared by Iordanis Petsas To Accompany International Economics: Theory and Policy International